Five Ways Hayato Learns He is not Straight
by peroxidepest17
Summary: Gokusen 2 Drama fic: Hayato learns some very important things about himself.


**Title:** Five Ways Hayato Realizes He is Not (Totally) Straight  
**Universe:** Gokusen 2  
**Theme/Topic:** As stated above  
**Rating:** Probably PG-13ish?  
**Character/Pairing/s: **HayatoxRyu, Tsuchiya, Take, Hyuuga  
**Warnings/Spoilers:** End of series spoilers. Also, REALLY DUMB stereotypes and OOC stupidity. Leave me alone.  
**Word Count:** 2,081  
**Summary:** Hayato learns some very important things about himself.  
**Dedication:** absenceofmind- People are going to KILL me for doing this when I owe SO MANY OTHERS. Are you happy? Are you? YOU ARE GOING TO GET ME MAULED. I hope you hate this stupid story as much as I do.  
**A/N:** So I decided that since this stupid thing was the closest to being finished out of all the abandoned ficbits I posted yesterday, I might as well go ahead and finish it and let that be that. Because I've been feeling lazy and unproductive and basically USELESS lately and I figured that finishing something might motivate me to finish other things? Or I was just crazy this morning, take your pick. But yeah, can YOU find the parts that were written two months ago and the parts that were written two minutes ago? I BET YOU CAN. The clue is that it's not in chronological order. LOL  
**Disclaimer:** Not mine, though I wish constantly.  
**Distribution:** Just lemme know.

* * *

**1.**

A sudden knock on the bathroom door completely and utterly disrupts Hayato's concentration in these, his most critical early morning hours; he scowls into the mirror and thinks that that's just great, now he's messed up and he has to start _all over again_ because it just looks completely wrong all of a sudden—all lopsided and frumpy on one side and too poofy on the other.

His hair, it seems, is quite the worthy opponent.

"Niisan!!" Taku groans from the hallway outside the bathroom, and pounds on the door a few more times when Hayato doesn't answer right away, "Niisan if you don't hurry I'm going to be late for school. You've been in the bathroom for _two hours_! At least let me pee!"

Hayato scowls and shouts, "I am _doing_ my _hair_. Today there will be _waves_ so _I need to concentrate_ or I won't look good and _everyone will notice_. You are _ruining_ my atmosphere."

Silence.

Then, a strained, "Niisan…don't you go to an all boy's school? Who are you trying to impress?"

Hayato yelps when he burns himself with his curling iron.

**2.**

"Tsucchi," Hayato whines, "Tsucchi you're officially my new best friend now, okay?"

Tsuchiya sighs and studies Hayato warily. It has been exactly three days since Ryu's betrayal and since then everything has turned into a big mess (even Hayato's hair, oddly enough).

And it feels like things are only going to get messier in the future.

Tsuchiya eyes Hyuuga on the other side of the table—silently asking for help— but the bastard just turns his gaze towards the ceiling and starts whistling like he doesn't see anything at all. It makes Tsuchiya briefly think to himself that maybe having Hayato as his new best friend won't be so bad after all, since it seems like he's in the market for a replacement anyway.

But at the same time, he already knows that there is only one person on this planet who is suited for putting up with Hayato _all_ the time, and that person is noticeably absent. Hence the mess.

"Oi, I'm talking to you!" Hayato prods, and shoves Tsuchiya's shoulder when the taller boy doesn't respond. "We're best friends now, okay? Officially." He grins. "Aren't you lucky?"

Tsuchiya sighs and runs his hand through his hair. He supposes there's nothing left to do but try and put this to Hayato gently. "I think," he begins, with a very serious expression on his face, "that maybe you are rushing into things here, Hayato."

Hayato blinks. "What do you mean?"

Tsuchiya clears his throat. "Well… I mean… I know you're feeling um… insecure now and stuff. You know, after everything that happened and all that…_history _the two of you have. But uh… but think about _my_ feelings for a second, will you? It's been less than a week. I don't want to be your _rebound_."

Hayato stares at him. "What the fuck are you talking about?"

No one says anything for a while after that, instead they share sideways glances and start fiddling with their coffee menus. Then, after a long, awkward silence, Hyuuga coughs and excuses himself to the bathroom. Take abruptly stands and says, "I'll help you, Hyuuga!" like that is the most normal thing _ever_ to say to your _guy friend_ who is going to the _bathroom _before _following him inside_.

The sad thing is, Tsuchiya ends up joining them anyway. In the bathroom. The three of them together. Because that is the safest place to be right now.

In the meantime, Hayato sits at the table and tries to figure out what his friends are trying to say here, exactly.

He furrows his brow and purses his lips, "Rebound?"

Pause.

"Oi!"

**3.**

They're changing in the locker room after having gotten the shit beaten out of them (again) earlier this morning, and since Yankumi doesn't like it when they're lolling in their chairs half-conscious and bleeding all over the floor while she's teaching, she's given them this next period off to pull themselves together and clean up ("like real men!") before they have to be back in the classroom learning the differences between derivatives and integrals (as if they even know what those are in the first place).

Hayato manages to get his shirt halfway unbuttoned before he hears Ryu's abrupt hiss; he turns around to make sure everything is okay and is just in time to see Ryu pull his cotton undershirt off. Ryu bunches it up in his hand and uses it to mop up some of the blood oozing out from the cut on his arm.

To be fair, Hayato is only staring at him a little bit.

"Fuck, waking up tomorrow is going to suck," Ryu mutters sorely, and there is a two or three second pause before he realizes that Hayato is just looking at him and not moving or saying anything back. He pauses; shifts a bit self-consciously. "What?"

"Uh," Hayato says, intelligently.

Ryu stops taking his clothes off and studies his friend carefully. He furrows his brow in concern at Hayato's strange expression.

Then, he slowly holds up a hand and waves three fingers in the air in front of Hayato's face. "Did you get hit in the head just now or something?" he asks, and tracks the movements of his friend's eyes as he moves his hand back and forth.

Hayato swallows. "Um… maybe?"

Ryu nods. "Maybe you have a concussion?"

"Uh…maybe."

Hayato hopes that's what it is, anyway.

**4.**

It's barely a week after Ryu leaves for college in America when Hayato introduces Kyoko-chan to Hyuuga. He shows her off to him before any of the others for some reason; Hyuuga can only suppose that he is being used as some sort of the test panel for Hayato's first post-high school girlfriend before he tries introducing her to Take and Tsucchi.

She waves at Hyuuga shyly and Hayato explains that the two of them met at the restaurant he works at because her parents always like dragging her there even though she doesn't really like the food. Hayato doesn't like the food either.

Hyuuga studies her and thinks that her face is a little more angular than he would have pegged as Hayato's type. She seems taller than average too.

The three of them manage to chat amiably for an hour or two after the introductions have been made—this of course, means that Kyoko-chan and Hyuuga sip coffee at their table and listen while Hayato does most of the talking.

But then Kyoko-chan's cell phone rings and it's her parents; they're sending the driver and the car to pick her up because tonight she has homework and tomorrow she has school and they can't have their plans for her attending Stanford next year ruined just because she wants to hang out with her friends. It's not worth the risk after all the hard work they put into getting her to this point as a family, after all.

She looks a little disappointed, but agrees eventually. She tells Hayato and Hyuuga that she has to go as soon as she hangs up.

"Ah, your parents are such a drag," Hayato sighs. "We should just ditch them completely for a whole day and see what happens. Bet they'd freak out."

Kyoko-chan smiles ruefully at the idea. "The driver will be here in fifteen minutes," she tells them. Then she eyes Hayato shyly, hopefully. "Maybe next time I won't pick up the phone."

And that's when Hyuuga suddenly gets it—that thing about Kyoko-chan that has been bugging him since she walked in the door under Hayato's arm.

After she is gone, Hyuuga finishes his drink and takes a deep breath; this could get awkward quickly, he thinks, because Hayato is transparent to everyone except himself and sometimes Ryu, which kind of makes them very special in very many ways and—as Take says— so very, very perfect a fit.

"Well?" Hayato crows, once Kyoko-chan is gone. He leans back in his chair like he has won some sort of competition, "What do you think? Cute, right? I'll introduce her to Tsucchi and Take next."

Hyuuga debates the merits of excusing himself to the bathroom and climbing out through the window like he did the last time one of Hayato's Ryu Issues came up like this.

But Hayato looks so earnest and so _extremely_ clueless right now, and Hyuuga supposes that since he's the only one here, he ought to at least say _something._

"She reminds me of someone we know," he manages after a moment or two, and makes a circular gesture with one of his hands that is supposed to encourage Hayato to rev up the old brain-engine and roll with him here.

Hayato just blinks. "What's that supposed to mean?" he asks, around his straw.

Hyuuga frowns and looks at his watch; he has an opening shift at the club tonight, and as such, he doesn't have all that much time to encourage Hayato's neurons into firing for themselves, as much as Take always assures him that helping Hayato to do that every once in a while is good for his health.

But work is work, and if he is going to stay in stylish suits and shiny shoes for the rest of his life like he plans to, then he needs to be on time and not mentally exhausted from dealing with Hayato's Ryu Issues. So Hyuuga sits up a little straighter in his chair and tries to put this as clearly as possible. "She reminds me of Ryu," he says, and doesn't even try to dress it up even a little bit. Because Hayato needs to _absolutely, unquestionably_ understand what he is saying here, before he gets poor Kyoko-chan disowned. She seems like a sweet kid.

And Hayato does get it; in fact, he gets it so much that he promptly chokes on his drink and iced coffee sprays all over the front of Hyuuga's shirt, which makes him late to work anyway.

As it turns out, Take and Tsucchi never get to meet Kyoko-chan after all.

**5.**

He's been waiting and waiting and waiting, and after all this time today is finally here—he'd marked it with a big red circle on his calendar just to make sure he wouldn't miss it.

Today Ryu is coming home.

Hayato has been waiting.

_Four years is a long time_, Hayato thinks, and his throat suddenly goes dry.

_Four years is a really, really long time_, he thinks, more forcefully.

He'd waited for every minute of it, and now Ryu's coming home.

Something about the way Hayato feels about that seems especially significant, but he doesn't exactly get it right away; he's too delirious with the prospect of _meeting Ryu again after four years_.

But then he sees Ryu step off the plane and through the doors all of a sudden; the other boy looks a mess and tired and jetlagged and_ so_ _glad to finally _behome. Hayato is standing on his toes trying to see over the throng of people waiting outside the gate when it happens, and it's at the exact moment when he lays eyes on Ryu that he finally _gets it_.

"Oh," he says to himself, and pauses for a second.

But it's only for a second, because _Ryu is standing right there in front of him_ and that means it's time to jump up and down and shout.

So that's what he does; he jumps up and down, waves his hands in the air above his head. "Oi, Ryu!!!" he shouts, as loudly as he can.

Ryu sees him—hears him— and stops. He looks a little bit surprised to see Hayato there. Surprised but pleased, Hayato notes, and he feels a little dizzy when he lets himself think like that.

The two of them end up just standing like that in the middle of the airport for a while, looking at each other. Hayato is still waving— for some reason he can't really stop.

Then, Ryu smiles. It's tired and sweet, and somehow, relieved. "Yo," he says, simply.

Hayato grins back. "Yo."

And even if Hayato knows the truth now, even if he _gets it_ now, when they look at each other like that, it's like nothing ever really changed at all.

_Four years is a long time,_ Hayato thinks to himself, _but this is still Ryu._

And that's all that matters.

**END**


End file.
